Children Of The West Palace

As I laid in the green field across from our home I thought about how I was going to make enough money to help at home and also get a present for the upcoming birthday of my sisters. There were only a few two days left until then so I was clenching the grass in my hands thinking about that. I was in the middle of having an argument with myself about that situation when I heard my siblings giggling on their way over to me. I sat up straight and turned my head to the sight of Martin sitting on the arms of Janie and Janet, as if he was a king and our sisters the throne. They seemed so happy as they were stumbling about the whole place laughing so loudly that everyone who walked past us looked over to see what was happening.

After a few minutes they successfully managed to get to me without falling over into the grass. Which was a big surprise to me since this was the first time they had gotten so far without falling. At that moment I remembered all the other times they had tried this and failed, those memories made me laugh each time I thought of them. They now stood in front of me and Martin said “Look brother we finally made it all the way today” while Janie and Janet nodded but then Janet said “Your majesty the great king Martin your getting really heavy and I don't think our weak arms can hold you any longer” with those words both the girls let Martin get down from their arms and we all started laughing.

Moments like these made me the happiest brother in the world. I met a lot through my fathers job, you could say that my father was a fixer. He could fix anything as long as he had the time to do it, he was not just a fixer of broken things but he also had a great personality that made anyone want to seek help from him. So because of his work he would get called to many houses to fix anything they wanted to fix and I would go as his helping hand. At those houses I saw many siblings always fighting over meaningless things such as wearing eachothers clothes, food or even who got to ride one specific carriage when they had many many carriages. Their quarrels were really stupid if i have to put it in one word.

In my family we were all brought up to respect and be happy with what we got which my siblings and I understood very well. We never took anything for granted.

Two days later,

Today was Janie and Janets birthday and even though I had gotten them a present I was very nervous if they were going to like it or not. Yesterday when I went to the market with my father I took one of my favorite books and sold it after thinking about it alot and thankfully it got me enough money to buy Janie and Janets a heart shaped locket. It was a bronze locket with flower patterns on both sides of the locket near the edges. My father and I took the two sides because all I could afford was one locket so we had to make due with what we had. After taking the locket sides apart my father carved Janie Orteks on one of the pieces and Janet Orteks on the other piece so that they both had a part of the locket with them all the time.

My mother, who was the kindest soul that I knew, had made muffins whenever it was one of our birthdays. The birthdays were the only times where we would be able to eat muffins. It was such a rare delicacy for us to eat that when we would sit down to eat it we would all take our time to savour the taste. Once we had finished our muffin we would always ask if there was any more even though we all knew that there was not any more.

After we ate our muffins and asked the question that had become a habit it was time to give Janie and Janet their birthday presents. My father went over to his coat and took out two small wooden boxes. He came over to the two girls and reached out both of his hands with the wooden boxes to give to each of the girls and gently said “Your mother and I are very proud of the girls you have become, happy birthday my beautiful girls, This is a present from all of us”. Janie and Janet became so happy that they quickly took the boxes and opened them.

Once they had taken the lockets out they seemed so happy and eager to put it on that they had not realized that their names were carved into it. When Father told them they started laughing and their cheeks turned red because of the embarrassment that they had not realized the beautifully carved names on the pieces of the lockets. My mother had found some strings the other day which is what the two pieces of the lockets were on. After a few short moments my mother tied the strings with the lockets on both the girls and Janie and Janet ran straight to the small little mirror we had in the house and were taking turns to look at their new necklace.

My parents, my little brother and I were all looking at two happy girls in front of that tiny mirror to look at their birthday present. Then all of a sudden a deafening boom came from outside our home, we kids all ran over to our mother while our father gestured for us to calm down and he went over to the door to open it to see what was happening outside. When he opened the front door we all stood up straight on our feet slowly going to the door. I could not believe my eyes. My body started to shake and I could hear my siblings crying behind me, especially Martin. Martin was in my mother's arms and the girls were at her side tugging her skirt so that mother would go further near the door.

My father quickly closed the door and shouted shakily “Children quickly grab your travel sacks and put your clothes in there with nothing heavy or unneeded” and he went outside. We all did what father told us and packed up our sacks while mother was packing her stuff and all the food and water she could. Everything was happening so fast and my heart just would not calm down for some reason. It was beating so loudly that I could hear the thumping in my head, it was as if my heart was going to jump out of my chest.

When Father came back he quickly packed up his sack and said “ I talked with the other villagers, what's happening is that the volcano that has not been active for more than 300 years on Vika mountain is going to erupt soon so we need to leave as fast as we can”. When we stepped outside our home I turned my head to look at our home because I knew deep down that our house was not going to survive the volcano but now was not the time to think about that. We went out and all around us were families hurriedly trying to get out of that village. The sky was gray and dark, if you looked up at the mountain in the distance you could see the lava quickly making its way down from the mountain.

My father led us to a wagon with a horse strapped to it and told us to hop on and that we would be going very far from here.

The morning after when I woke up in the wagon everyone else was asleep except for father, he was riding the wagon he probably has not slept all night. I went over to fathers side and put my hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and his face looked very tired, even more tired than the face of somebody who has not slept for a day. He had dark bags under his eyes and I could hear him breathing very loudly, it almost seemed like he was gasping for air. I then said “Father you do not look too well, let me ride the wagon in your place” he smiled but even his smile could not hide his exhaustion any longer. He tried to speak but his voice was so low it sounded like a whisper when he said “we will be there soon it's… its fine I can manage until then”. I nodded and went to go and sit down again.

My heart still would not calm down even though we were far away from our village and the volcano. Thinking back to the volcano it had been a really long time since any of them had erupted. Our country Monsee, as I have heard before from people, is very gigantic and powerful but also very volcanic, which made many afraid to live near the mountains though this was more than 300 years ago. Why are the volcanoes erupting again?

A while later we arrived at another village. The village was dead silent; nobody had come out to let the sheep out or the cows. There was absolutely nobody. I scooted over to wake mother up to let her know that we had arrived at another village. She was sleeping with Martin in her arms and Janie and Janet beside her. I shook her gently but there was no response then I shook her again but no response again. Then I got a little scared so I shook her aggressively so that my other siblings woke up.

They all looked confused and I told them that mother was not waking up so we all started shaking her. Martin started crying and was calling for father but father was also not responding. Then all of a sudden the wagon stopped and a thump came from my fathers seat. I stood up but as soon as I saw our father I stumbled back a few steps. I heard Janet ask what was going on but I could not form the words nor had the will to speak.

Our father was not at his seat anymore but on the ground and so were the villagers from this village. Every one of them was on the ground. The only strange thing that I noticed was that there were no kids beside those who were lying on the ground. Soon after I heard my sisters crying and Janet tugged at my pants and said cryingly “mother is not breathing, mother is not breathing”.

How had this happened I thought to myself, they were fine a few hours ago. Tears started streaming down my face and my breath caught in my throat, why were we kids fine but our parents… our parents died. That was the first moment I said the word, the moment I believed that they were really gone. Our kind and gentle parents were gone just like that. Without so much as a goodbye.

I sat back down not knowing what to do, shocked at the situation and hugged my siblings tightly. All of us were crying until we heard another wagon coming towards us. I heard them stop in front of us. We all become silent, afraid of who it might be. Our parents were now gone and we were all alone. Nobody could save us if something happened to us now. Then a voice came from the wagon and they shouted “are there any kids in there, don't worry we are not here to harm you, if there are any kids there please come out”. The voice was not of an adult but of a young boy. I poked my head up but told my siblings to stay down for now.

When I saw the boy's face he almost had a relieved facial expression. He then started to say a lot of words but I could not concentrate on him because all I could look at and think about was my dead father on the ground. “Hey kid” the man shouted and that snapped me out of my own thoughts. The stranger was now close to our wagon, he had walked up to us and kept on talking and said “oh I thought it was just you. It's a good thing we got to you before the other side of Monsee did, they would not be so kind to you. Come on kids let's go we got a long journey ahead of us” I was hesitant at first but then I glimpsed at his wagon and saw more kids and a few other people the age of the stranger.

My siblings and I got out of our wagon past our mother and our father into the Strangers wagon. We left our parents there. I knew it was not a good idea to go with a stranger but he was older than all of us. I would not be able to protect my siblings if we were in danger and I would also not be able to provide them with food. So I chose to trust this stranger and go with him.

The wagon was very spacious which meant that there were more than a hundred kids in that wagon. Nobody spoke, nobody wept, nothing. It was silent for a long time until I could not sit still any longer and asked “ where are you people taking us? Who are you? What happened to our parents and the people in that village?

“Kid, it seems that you have a lot of questions,” the boy said. I kept looking at him waiting for him to answer my questions.

“Okay okay, I will answer your questions. First question : we are taking you to the west palace. Second question : We work for the first prince he…” . “YOU GUYS WORK FOR THE PALACE” a kid from the front of the wagon shouted and everybody started to look at the stranger now.

The stranger looked at the kid and nodded and then said “As I was saying the first prince asked us” he pointed to the older looking kids in the wagon “to save you kids and bring you to the palace, and lastly for your last question listen very carefully. We also do not have an exact answer to what is happening around our country but from what we have seen natural disasters have been happening everywhere. First it started at the very edges of Monsee, from the east and west and started to go inwards towards where you lived. Now all of Monsee is filled with natural disasters but the strangest thing of all is not the disasters but the death of adults over the age of 35. At first we thought that it might have been a curse that was put on Monsee but a few weeks ago we got word from our neighboring kingdoms that the same disasters and the same death situations are happening.”

I Paused for a second trying to make sense of everything he just said. So he's saying that the West and East palace both knew of this and didn't warn us. Our lives didn't mean anything to them then. Soon after his words we all heard loud thunder and saw raindrops the size of apples but it was no time to think about the rain. We were okay in the wagon because it had a cover over it. I hugged my siblings tightly. We kids are the only ones left in this huge world alone without anyone to look after us. That day I made myself a promise that I would stay with my siblings and protect them from any dangers no matter what it was. I am all they got now, we have to stick together now.

I will continue this in my free time. Thank you for reading.